Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas toll interoperability!

[wxfree]

I put this here because this news is from a TxDOT minute order, although it involves "Central States," too.  The minute order refers to an agreement I knew nothing about:

"The department, the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), Harris County, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), the Fort Bend Grand Parkway Toll Road Authority (GPTRA), the Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA) and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) have negotiated an agreement to ensure the interoperability of toll collection systems on turnpikes, toll roads, managed lanes, toll bridges and other tolled facilities which they manage, own or operate."

In Texas, which has a more complex toll landscape, this includes only the roads owned or operated by the listed entities.  I don't know if it includes the El Paso area toll facilities, for which NTTA provides toll collection and TollTags are the "native" transponder, which may constitute being "operated" by NTTA.  It includes the Fort Bend Grand Parkway TRA but not the Fort Bend County TRA.  The Fort Bend County web sites lists the Grand Parkway along with Fort Bend Parkway and Westpark Tollway, so they may all be under one umbrella despite the two different names.  I'd assume the county would include all of its toll roads.

Loop 49 and the Cameron County toll road (and possibly El Paso) appear to be excluded.  DFW Airport and the border toll bridges are under different systems and are excluded from this agreement, but DFW Airport accepts TollTags under a different agreement and that shouldn't be affected.

For maximum use, any of the three Texas tags would, I believe, cover the entire toll road system of all three states (the conventional system, not including DFW - which is more of an parking fee than a toll - or border bridges).

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot/commission/2016/0128/6b.pdf

clarification - I know that NTTA provides toll collection for CRRMA (El Paso), which may mean that those roads are included.  I don't know the intricacies of the toll collection services for NETRMA or CCRMA, which my be provided by TxDOT and may mean that their roads are included, too.  I said that those two entities "appear" to be excluded, but they may not be.

[The Ghostbuster]

Bastards! Get it working!

[Bobby5280]

Maybe they need a national company like Visa, MasterCard, etc. to revamp this toll tag nonsense.

[lordsutch]

I'd assume that the only major exclusion is the Laredo Trade Tag, although there may also be boutique transponders for the various LRGV crossings to Mexico that I've never heard of.

My understanding is that, except for the Rio Grande bridges, there are only 3 tolling players in Texas (NTTA, Harris County, and TxDOT, the latter based in Austin) with everyone else using one of those three's backend systems and tags.

[wxfree]

Kansas Turnpike Authority has approved the agreement.  Their news release also gives a time estimate.  They hope to be ready in about a year.
http://www.ksturnpike.com/assets/uploads/2016-02-15_iOP_Midwest_hub.pdf

[The Ghostbuster]

How long before all the toll roads in the country are operable with one another?

[CtrlAltDel]

How long before all the toll roads in the country are operable with one another?

According to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, they have until October. That date, though, will almost certainly be pushed back.

[Rothman]

How long before all the toll roads in the country are operable with one another?

According to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, they have until October. That date, though, will almost certainly be pushed back.

Reminds me of Douglas Adams' quote: "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."  Makes you wonder why dates are set they way they are.  I've yet to be involved with some significant technologically-dependent initiative that actually adhered to its announced schedule.

[CtrlAltDel]

How long before all the toll roads in the country are operable with one another?

According to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, they have until October. That date, though, will almost certainly be pushed back.

Reminds me of Douglas Adams' quote: "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."  Makes you wonder why dates are set they way they are.  I've yet to be involved with some significant technologically-dependent initiative that actually adhered to its announced schedule.

Well, the moon landing happened five months before the deadline. That's pretty technological, although you may not have been involved with it.

[Revive 755]

According to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, they have until October. That date, though, will almost certainly be pushed back.

Reminds me of Douglas Adams' quote: "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."  Makes you wonder why dates are set they way they are.  I've yet to be involved with some significant technologically-dependent initiative that actually adhered to its announced schedule.

Are they actually trying to meet the deadline in this case though?  I see two decent routes to implementation, which may not be mutually exclusive:

1) Start some sort of national bill-by-plate system/shared database system.

2) Hand out transponders that are switchable to the most common frequencies (though any unique systems might have to be replaced).

I'm open to good explanations on why neither of the above are feasible.

At the very least, if I know far enough in advance that I am going to use toll facilities that are not compatible with my brand of transponder at the moment, I should have the option for setting up a temporary bill-by-plate account - something a few facilities don't seem to have or want to do.